The present invention relates to a movable apparatus for storing items in a truck's payload area, protecting said items from weather, in an easily manufactured and sturdy enclosure.
Light duty and heavy duty pickup trucks account for the majority of vehicles sold in the United States. A significant part of these trucks' utility comes from having a payload bed in the rear of the vehicle. The bed typically consists of a load floor, two fixed sides and a tailgate in the rear to facilitate access to the bed. There is generally no top to the payload bed, which allows for vast flexibility in what may be stored or mobilized by the vehicle, as the bed is not confined by a fixed height limitation, but also prevents proper confinement of the bed for smaller loads. Some methods have been employed to address this issue, such as tonneau covers, camper tops and the like, but these solutions are substantially permanent, this limiting the vehicle's utility in large part, as well as being cumbersome and expensive.
Clear downsides to the current mode of utilizing these payload areas thus exist. While a large amount of flexibility is gained in having no top or roof to the payload bed, this also leaves the payload area, as well as the contents stored therein, essentially out in the open. The consequence of this is the inherent exposure of the content of the payload area. This exposure can be a detriment for many reasons, not the least of which is the exposure of the contents of the payload area to weather, including sun and rain, which can damage the contents contained within the payload area. Additionally, having this area exposed leaves the contents more susceptible to theft because the items are unprotected as well as in plain sight of any would-be thieves. The use of known alternatives, such as tonneau covers and camper tops hinders the long term flexibility of the payload area, in addition to adding significant expense and complication to the payload area. Other solutions, such as truck boxes, are also semi-permanent, heavy, and intrude significantly into cargo space.
The absence of a solution which provides a practical solution for these problems has yet to be developed. The present invention, however, provides a simple, efficient and cost-effective apparatus which addresses the issues of concealing and protecting cargo stored in the payload bed without the costly and cumbersome installation of additional flexibility-hindering apparatuses. The present invention of a payload bed storage enclosure is thus a novel, needed and functional answer to the problems in the field relating to truck bed storage.
All of these aspects of the current state of payload storage lead to an increased need for a revised method of implementation with minimized cost and complexity, all of which the present invention addresses.